Wall Street Journal: 30 August 2000
HUMAN RIGHTS: UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN EAST TIMOR
One year after pro-Indonesia militias, backed by the Indonesian army, killed, burned and looted their way across East Timor in response to the 30 August 1999, referendum on independence, not a single perpetrator of those crimes has been brought to trial.
By JOE SAUNDERS
This op-ed page article can be found at:
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB967579819293683956.htm
ONE YEAR after pro-Indonesia militias, backed by the Indonesian army,
killed, burned and looted their way across East Timor in response to the
August 30, 1999, referendum on independence, not a single perpetrator of
those crimes has been brought to trial. If justice is to be done, the
international community needs to be less naive about the Indonesian
judicial system.
At the moment, Indonesia -- not East Timor, and not the United Nations
-- holds the key to accountability for the grave crimes that took place.
Key member states of the U.N. early on rejected the idea of an
international tribunal on both political and logistical grounds. Asian
countries were wary of setting a precedent for the international
prosecution of human rights abuses in the region -- Russia had Chechnya
and China had Tibet and Xinjiang to think about. Some Western countries
were worried about alienating the Indonesian army and provoking a coup
at a time when Indonesia's transition to democracy was still fragile.
There was also concern about the costs of setting up an international
tribunal and who would bear the expenses.
The U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor, for its part, had to
set up a court system from scratch. It designated a special
international panel of the newly created Dili District Court and
formally installed judges on July 20. But even if the panel has the
structure and statutes in place to try serious crimes, it may not be
able to get the serious criminals. Virtually all the masterminds of the
violence are in Indonesia and still free. The likelihood they will be
extradited to East Timor is low.
Unfortunately, so are East Timorese expectations of justice in
Indonesia. The Indonesian government under former President B.J. Habibie
lobbied hard against a special U.N. commission of inquiry into the
violence in East Timor, arguing that Jakarta could undertake an
investigation on its own. In the end, both the U.N. and the Indonesian
inquiries went ahead.
The U.N. commission concluded in its January report to U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the Indonesian army and militias were
guilty of a pattern of gross human rights violations and breaches of
humanitarian law in East Timor that included widespread and systematic
intimidation, humiliation, terror, destruction of property, violence
against women and displacement of people. Emphasizing East Timor's
future social and political stability depended on truth and
reconciliation and the
prosecution of those responsible for crimes, it recommended, among other
things, that the U.N. establish an "international human rights tribunal
consisting of judges appointed by the U.N., preferably with the
participation of members from East Timor and Indonesia."
Much to its credit, the Indonesian government produced it own highly
professional report that was harder hitting than its international
counterpart.
Two more developments kept alive the international community's faith in
the Indonesian government's commitment to justice. First, the Indonesian
investigation was turned over in January 2000 to Attorney-General
Marzuki Darusman, the well-regarded former head of the Indonesian Human
Rights Commission. The second was President Abdurrahman Wahid's
dismissal in February of General Wiranto, the man who had been commander
of the Indonesian military when the sacking of East Timor took place.
But General Wiranto's dismissal, while a triumph of civilian over
military authority, hasn't led to prosecutions of army officers. And Mr.
Marzuki appointed an investigative team made up of people not only from
his office but also from two institutions linked directly to the 1999
violence: the police and the army. As counterweights, he appointed an
advisory body of experts, including some highly credible human rights
activists, but doubts about the quality of the team remain to this day.
However, the obstacles to justice go far deeper than the competence of
the investigators. The fact is that Indonesian courts are notoriously
corrupt, and even if Mr. Marzuki produces indictments, it is still
unlikely anyone will actually be convicted. If competent and
incorruptible judges could be found, there is no clear legal basis for
prosecutions on anything except ordinary criminal charges.
A constitutional amendment passed last week by Indonesia's parliament,
the People's Consultative Assembly, at the behest of the army, makes it
all the more unlikely that anyone in Indonesia will face charges of war
crimes or crimes against humanity. The constitution will now say no one
can be indicted for crimes committed before the enactment of laws used
to prosecute them. The assembly is currently debating legislation
establishing a truth commission, but it includes a provision under which
those responsible for gross human right abuses could receive an amnesty
in
exchange for information.
Even more fundamental is the lack of support from key institutions in
Indonesia for pursuing East Timorese cases. During the past two months,
the same militias who torched East Timor in September 1999 have been
terrorizing refugee camps and international humanitarian workers in
hit-and-run raids across the border from West Timor. Had there been any
political will in the Indonesian government to do so, the militia
leaders could have been stopped and disarmed months ago. If the
government
can't -- or won't -- even arrest known thugs for causing violence on
Indonesian soil, who is going to believe in their will to track down and
arrest those responsible for crimes in their former colony?
Following his trip to East Timor earlier this year, Mr. Annan promised
he would "closely monitor progress" Indonesia makes in redressing the
crimes its security forces committed in East Timor. It's time Mr. Annan
and U.N. Security Council members set specific benchmarks for progress.
Those should include a clear legal basis for an Indonesian court to
indict and try suspected perpetrators and credible personnel appointed
as judges, prosecutors and staff. The court should have clear
jurisdiction over not only crimes already extant in Indonesia's Criminal
Code but also crimes subject to universal jurisdiction in international
law, such as crimes against
humanity. Finally, Indonesian authorities should establish a witness
protection program and stop granting amnesties.
If Indonesia can't meet these standards it should invite the U.N. to
step in and set up a tribunal that can.